The Gift of Chess

Notice to commercial publishers seeking use of images from this collection of chess-related archive blogs. For use of the many large color restorations, two conditions must be met: 1) It is YOUR responsibility to obtain written permissions for use from the current holders of rights over the original b/w photo. Then, 2) make a tax-deductible donation to The Gift of Chess in honor of Robert J. Fischer-Newspaper Archives. A donation in the amount of $250 USD or greater is requested for images above 2000 pixels and other special request items. For small images, such as for fair use on personal blogs, all credits must remain intact and a donation is still requested but negotiable. Please direct any photographs for restoration and special request (for best results, scanned and submitted at their highest possible resolution), including any additional questions to S. Mooney, at bobbynewspaperblogs•gmail. As highlighted in the ABC News feature, chess has numerous benefits for individuals, including enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving skills, improving concentration and memory, and promoting social interaction and community building. Initiatives like The Gift of Chess have the potential to bring these benefits to a wider audience, particularly in areas where access to educational and recreational resources is limited.

Best of Chess Fischer Newspaper Archives
• Robert J. Fischer, 1955 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1956 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1957 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1958 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1959 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1960 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1961 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1962 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1963 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1964 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1965 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1966 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1967 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1968 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1969 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1970 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1971 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1972 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1973 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1974 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1975 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1976 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1977 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1978 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1979 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1980 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1981 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1982 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1983 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1984 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1985 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1986 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1987 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1988 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1989 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1990 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1991 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1992 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1993 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1994 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1995 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1996 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1997 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1998 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1999 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2000 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2001 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2002 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2003 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2004 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2005 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2006 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2007 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2008 bio + additional games
Chess Columns Additional Archives/Social Media

Ex-Chess Champion A Spring Valley Resident: Samuel Reshevsky Hopes to Recapture His American Title

Back to 1959 News Articles

The Journal News, White Plains, New York, Wednesday, March 04, 1959 - Page 10

Ex-Chess Champion A Spring Valley Resident
Samuel Reshevsky Hopes to Recapture His American Title

By Richard Einhorn
If chess is considered a sport, then Samuel Reshevsky of Spring Valley must be the most famous athlete in Rockland County. Mr. Reshevsky, five feet two inches tall, has dominated American chess since 1936.
Now 47, he has been in the public eye longer than Joe Louis, Joe DiMaggio, or Ted Williams. Louis and DiMaggio, or Ted Williams. Louis and DiMaggio have retired, and Williams is near the end of the trail, but Reshevsky is playing as well as ever.
His ambition is to become champion of the world. He is determined to win that honor although he has been stripped of his United States title by a high school boy of immense talent.
Followers Optimistic
Reshevsky's followers feel that his loss to a 15-year-old Bobby Fischer was a fluke, that the famed international grandmaster will gain revenge on his brilliant young rival.
“I understand there are plans to arrange a match between Bobby Fischer and myself,” Reshevsky said last week. “I think everybody would like to see this match materialize.”
But Fischer hasn't said he's willing.
Like other leading American chess players, Reshevsky is starved for competition. He has gone for stretches of almost a year without playing in a tournament.
“What we need are at least four big events a year. I expected more from our players who are now in their twenties, but they haven't had enough competition.”
He said the best hope lies in young players like Bobby Fischer.
“It is a tremendous thing for the future of American chess that Fischer is so young,” Reshevsky said. “Youngsters all over the country are getting better.”
Likes Spring Valley
Reshevsky said that moving to Spring Valley from New York was one of the best things that had ever happened to him.
“It is quiet and peaceful,” he said. “A chess player needs rest and relaxation. You can hardly find a chess player in this town, though,” he added.
Most of Reshevsky's time has been spent at home with his wife, Norma, and their three children.
“Joel and Sylvia play chess,” he said proudly. “Only my two-year-old daughter doesn't.”
Reshevsky came to the United States in 1920 from Poland after having toured Europe as a nine-year-old prodigy. But his parents and advisers made him take time out from chess to complete his education.
He was a pitcher on his high school baseball team. Later he attended the University of Chicago, where he majored in mathematics.
Reshevsky said he would like to go into the insurance business in New York. His training apart from chess was in accountancy. He owns a number of chess sets, but his favorite is an olivewood set he won last year in a tournament in Israel.
Keeping his identity as a chess player, even when not playing a game, is no problem, he says. Every one of his dozens of neck-ties bears a chess symbol of some sort.
Reshevsky's future hopes center on a match with Mikhail Botvinnik of the USSR, the reigning world's champion. Botvinnik is Reshevsky's age, and he too, has held his own against younger men.
“Strange as it may seem,” Reshevsky said, “chess is a very taxing game. But if you have your health and lead a normal life you can remain a serious contender for many, many years. Botvinnik started at the same time I did.”
Reshevsky's recent record against Botvinnik has been good. In a team match between the United States and the Soviet Union in Moscow, Reshevsky won one and drew the other of their encounters.
Drew Four Games
Reshevsky also drew four games in a team match in New York with Vassily Smyslov, a Russian who temporarily displaced Botvinnik as champion. Most experts rate Smyslov on a par with Botvinnik.
“There isn't much to choose between Smyslov and Botvinnik,” Reshevsky said.
Besides Botvinnik and Smyslov, there are at least two other Soviet players of world championship caliber. And still others are clamoring for their place in the sun.
Why do the Russians have so many good players, Reshevsky was asked.
“All the good players in the U.S.S.R. are subsidized,” he explained. “They can devote all their time to chess.”
In a free enterprise system, he said, chess would have to be commercialized to permit players to compete full time. He said he hoped a promoter like Jack Kramer would sponsor touring groups of chess professionals.

[EDITOR NOTE — Reporter Dick Einhorn, Columbia University, was formerly a Chess Master. He has defeated, in informal games, United States Champion Bobby Fischer, and former American champs, Larry Evans, Arthur Bisguier, and Arnold Denker.]

Ex-Chess Champion A Spring Valley Resident: Samuel Reshevsky Hopes to Recapture His American Title

'til the world understands why Robert J. Fischer criticised the U.S./British and Russian military industry imperial alliance and their own Israeli Apartheid. Sarah Wilkinson explains:

Bobby Fischer, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech
What a sad story Fischer was,” typed a racist, pro-imperialist colonial troll who supports mega-corporation entities over human rights, police state policies & white supremacy.
To which I replied: “Really? I think he [Bob Fischer] stood up to the broken system of corruption and raised awareness! Whether on the Palestinian/Israel-British-U.S. Imperial Apartheid scam, the Bush wars of ‘7 countries in 5 years,’ illegally, unconstitutionally which constituted mass xenocide or his run in with police brutality in Pasadena, California-- right here in the U.S., police run rampant over the Constitution of the U.S., on oath they swore to uphold, but when Americans don't know the law, and the cops either don't know or worse, “don't care” -- then I think that's pretty darn “sad”. I think Mr. Fischer held out and fought the good fight, steadfast til the day he died, and may he Rest In Peace.
Educate yourself about U.S./State Laws --
https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit/videos
After which the troll posted a string of profanities, confirming there was never any genuine sentiment of “compassion” for Mr. Fischer, rather an intent to inflict further defamatory remarks.

This ongoing work is a tribute to the life and accomplishments of Robert “Bobby” Fischer who passionately loved and studied chess history. May his life continue to inspire many other future generations of chess enthusiasts and kibitzers, alike.

Robert J. Fischer, Kid Chess Wizard 1956March 9, 1943 - January 17, 2008

The photograph of Bobby Fischer (above) from the March 02, 1956 The Tampa Times was discovered by Sharon Mooney (Bobby Fischer Newspaper Archive editor) on February 01, 2018 while gathering research materials for this ongoing newspaper archive project. Along with lost games now being translated into Algebraic notation and extractions from over two centuries of newspapers, it is but one of the many lost treasures to be found in the pages of old newspapers since our social media presence was first established November 11, 2017.

Special Thanks